Month: November 2015

Kitchen Tips of the Day

  1. Keep dry fruits in refrigerator to keep them fresh for long time.

  2. To prevent Hakka noodles or raw noodles to become sticky, keep them in cold water after boiling.

  3. To remove the bitterness of Methi (Fenugreek) leaves or Karela (bitter gourd) add salt in the sliced methi and karela and keep them for few minutes and drain excess water.

Lauki Kofta Curry

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Ingredients –

For Kofta –

  1. Bottle gourd medium size – 1
  2. Salt to taste
  3. Gram flour (besan) – 4 tsp
  4. Red chili powder – ½ tsp
  5. Oil for deep frying

For curry –

  1. Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
  2. Onions – 1
  3. Ginger – 1 inch
  4. Garlic – 4-5
  5. Green chili / red chili powder – ½ tsp
  6. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
  7. Coriander powder – 1 tsp
  8. Cumin powder – 1 tsp
  9. Tomato medium size – 1
  10. Coriander leaves – ½ cup
  11. Raisins – 9-10
  12. Garam masala powder – 1 tsp

Methods –

For Kofta –

  • Peel and grate the bottle gourd, remove extra water using strainer or using your hands.

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  • Take a bowl, add the bottle gourd, add salt, gram flour, red chili powder and mix well.
  • Divide the mixture into equal portions and flatten each of them one by one using your palms.

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  • Stuff one piece of raisins into each portion and shape them into round Koftas.

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  • Heat oil in a pan/kadai, fry the Koftas till it turns golden brown.

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  • Drain the oil and keep the Kofta balls in a separate container.

For Kofta gravy –

  • Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, ½ onion chopped and sauté for few second on medium flame.
  • Take chopped tomato, remaining chopped onions, cashew nuts, ginger and garlic put into blender jar blend it into paste without water.
  • Cook masala paste on medium flame into the pan, add turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, garam masala and sauté till the oil is separated from masala.

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  • Add salt to taste, 1 cup water and cover the pan and allow the gravy to boil.

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  • Once the gravy is ready, add coriander leaves and mix well.
  • While serving arrange the Koftas on the serving plate, pour the gravy over them. You can garnish the Koftas with coriander leaves or cheese.

Veggie Burger Recipe

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Ingredients –

Garnish for burger-

  1. Buns
  2. Cucumber slices
  3. Tomato slices
  4. Cheese slices
  5. Lettuce
  6. Mayonnaise

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For burger tikki/cutlet –

  1. Boiled potato medium size – 2
  2. Boiled kidney beans (Rajma) – ½ cup
  3. Boiled corn – ½ cup
  4. Salt to taste
  5. Red chili powder – ½ tsp
  6. Corn flour – 2 tbsp.
  7. Bread crumbs
  8. Oil for frying
  9. Ginger and garlic paste – 1 tbsp.
  10. Coriander powder – ½ tsp
  11. Cumin powder – ½ tsp
  12. Garam masala – ½ tsp
  13. Chopped Onion – ½ cup
  14. Chopped Coriander leaves – ½ cup

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Method –

  • Peel and Grate the boiled potatoes.
  • Place the potato in the bowl, add salt, ginger-garlic paste, corn flour, boiled beans, boiled corn, red chili powder, turmeric powder, bread crumbs – 1 tsp, Coriander powder, Cumin powder, garam masala, chopped onion, chopped coriander leaves and mix them well.

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  • Heat a pan, add 2-3 tsp of oil.
  • Take a small portion of mixture and make balls to bind it properly now slightly press the balls between your hands to flatten it and make the cutlet/tikki.

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  • Now coat the cutlet with the remaining bread crumbs.

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  • Once the oil turns hot, shallow fry the cutlets in low flame and keep flipping until the cutlet turns brown from both the sides (If you want you can deep fry the cutlets or you can bake the cutlets in the oven).

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  • Veg tikki/cutlet is ready.

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  • Cut the bun into two pieces from the middle (if you have uncut burger buns), you can slightly toast the buns.
  • Place a burger piece onto the plate, spread mayonnaise sauce on the bun slice.
  • Now place cucumbers on top of mayonnaise, place veggie tikki on top of cucumber, again place the cheese slice(s), tomato slice(s) and lettuce on top of Aloo tikki.
  • Place the other half of the bun piece on to the top.
  • Veggi burger is ready, you can serve with tomato ketchup, French fries and cold drinks.

Crispy Onions Rings

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Ingredients –

  1. Onions medium size – 2
  2. All-purpose flour (Maida) – 2 tsp
  3. Corn flour – 1 tsp
  4. Salt to taste
  5. Black pepper – 1 pinch
  6. Red chili powder – ½ tsp
  7. Garlic Grated /paste – ½ tsp
  8. Bread crumbs for coating
  9. Oil for frying

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Method –

  • Take a bowl, add Maida, corn flour, salt, black pepper, oil – ½ tsp, red chili powder and garlic, add water and whisk well into a smooth thick batter.
  • Cut onions into thick slices and separate into rings. We are going to use only the big sized rings, remove the center of the onion.

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  • Heat sufficient oil in a pan/kadai for deep frying.
  • Dip onions rings one at a time in the batter.

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  • Coat with bread crumbs.

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  • Deep fry into oil till it turns light golden color.

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  • Take out into a plate serve hot with ketchup.

Kitchen Tips of the Day

  1. If you forgot to soak kidney beans (Rajma) or Grams (chana, chickpea, etc) with enough time in advance, then you can soak them in boiled water for couple of hours. This will have the same effect of soaking for almost 8-10 hours in advance.

  2. You can soak hard/dry lemon in Luke warm water for 10-15 minutes, to get more juice out of it.

  3. Cleaning the Microwave oven is always a challenging task. To make this simple

      1. Take a bowl of water, add 4-5 table spoon of vinegar and lemon into it.

      2. Start the microwave in high temperature and run for 10-15 minutes.

      3. After 10-15 minutes switch off and unplug the Microwave oven and you can easily wipe the tough grease and dirt using a soft cotton cloth.

Besan ka Laddu

Besan ka Laddu is a very delicious recipe that is popular all over India. Besan Ka Laddu can be prepared during festivals and moreover you can also store this laddus in a air tight containers for about 1 month.

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Ingredients-

  1. Besan (Chick flour/Gram flour) – 2 cup
  2. Ghee – 1 cup
  3. Powder sugar/ Bura – 1 cup (as per your taste)
  4. Dry fruits –almonds, cashew etc.
  5. Cardamom powder – 2 pinch

Method –

  • Heat ghee in a pan. Add gram flour in pan, and keep stirring continuously for about 10-15 minutes or till gram flour turn light brown in color.
  • Add cardamom powder, cashew, and almonds. Mix well and remove from heat and let it cool down for 5 minutes.
  • Add powdered sugar and mix well. Use your hands to mix this.
  • Shape into lemon sized round laddu and serve.

Kitchen Tips of the Day

  1. Mix 1 cup of wheat flour with 2 table spoon of boric acid powder and sprinkle in the corners of the kitchen, this will keep the cockroaches away.

  2. Use brown sugar instead of white sugar in the preparation of cake, this will give better color to the cake.

  3. Run the mixer/grinder with salt once in a month to sharpen the blades.

Moong Dal ka Halwa (Sheera)

Most of the time we eat Suji or Carrot halwa, so today I thought to try something different which will be as delicious as other types of halwa. All the ingredients used in this halwa is readily available at home and can be prepared in very less time. This is very delicious recipe you can also try at your home and share with your guest and friends and your experience with me.

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Ingredients –

  1. Yellow Moong dal – 1 cup
  2. Ghee – 4 tsp
  3. Sugar – ¾ cup (as per your taste)
  4. Mawa (milk) – ½ cup
  5. Green cardamom – 2 pinch
  6. Pista(pistachios) for garnishing (or you can take any other dry fruits)

Method –

  • Wash moong dal and soak in water for about 3 hours, then grind the moong dal without water.

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  • Heat ghee on a non-stick pan, once ghee is melted add grinded moong dal paste to it.
  • Keep stirring continuously and cook on medium flame for 10 -15 minutes till it becomes a little brown in color.

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  • After 15 minutes add crumbled mawa/milk to it, cook it on medium flame for 5-6 minutes.
  • Add the sugar and mix well, cover and cook for another 5-7 minutes, while stirring occasionally until the moisture dries up.
  • You can add dry fruits now also or while serving.

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  • Moong Dal halwa is ready, serve hot garnished with pistachios.

Chocolate Samosa for Kids

Chocolates are always one of the most tempting items when it we talk about foods and specially when it comes to children. So during this festive season I though why not give my daughter something new which is a combination of both Indian and western dishes, so the first thing which came to my mind is chocolate samosa. And I am very sure your children’s will also like this.

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Ingredients –

  1. Plain flour – 1 cup
  2. Oil – 2 tsp
  3. Sugar – ½ cup
  4. Cardamom power – 2 pinch
  5. Chocolate chips/bars for filling

Method-

  • Take a bowl, mix flour (maida) and oil, with help of water prepare the dough and knead thoroughly.
  • Make sure the dough should not be too hard nor too soft. Cover and keep it aside for 10-15 to let it settle down.
  • After 10-15 minutes the dough is ready, press it gently to make it smooth.
  • Take small portion from the dough and roll them into small balls.
  • Now roll each one of them using a rolling pin of approximately 3-3 ½ inches in diameter.
  • Apply little bit of oil, to each ball and roll them into small oblong shapes.
  • Cut each into halves and shape them into cones.

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  • Take 4-5 piece of chocolate in the cones and fold the edges a bit.
  • Apply water on the edges to seal the samosa.

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  • Repeat the same process for rest of the dough balls and keep them aside for 5 to 6 minutes. This will also allow the samosa pocket to seal properly.

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  • Heat oil in a pan/kadai, deep fry samosa on medium heat till it turns golden brown.

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  • Add ½ cup sugar with 1 ½ cup of water in another pan to make sugar syrup. Cook it until all the sugar dissolves into the water and become little thick (approx. 4-5 minutes).
  • When the syrup is ready, turn off the flame, add cardamom powder into it and allow it to cool down for few minutes.
  • Dip the fried Chocolate samosa, 2-3 at a time into the sugar syrup for few seconds and transfer to another plate.

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  • Chocolate samosa is ready, allow it to become cold before you serve.

Elo Jhelo/ Champakali /Goja Sweet Recipe

My mother used to prepare Elo Jhelo every year on Diwali or on special festive seasons. This is a very delicious recipe, I personally like Elo Jhelo and today I thought to share this recipe with you. This is also known as Champakali in Maharashtra and in some places this is called as Goja.

Ingredients –

  1. All-purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cups
  2. Water/Milk for making dough
  3. Ghee/Oil – 2 tsp
  4. Sugar – ½ cup
  5. Oil for Frying
  6. Cardamom powder – 2 pinch

Method –

  • Take a bowl, mix flour (maida) and oil, with help of water prepare the dough and knead thoroughly.
  • Make sure the dough should not be too hard nor too soft. Cover and keep it aside for 10-15 to let it settle down.
  • After 10-15 minutes when the dough is ready, press it gently to make it smooth.
  • Take small portion from the dough and roll them into small balls.
  • Now roll each one of them using a rolling pin of approximately 3-3 ½ inches in diameter.
  • Leaving out around ½ cm from the outer edges, cut this into slices from the center towards the edges.

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  • Hold the strips from the end, while pressing it from the ends, curl them nicely till the end.

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  • Repeat the same process for rest of the dough balls and keep them aside.

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  • To fry Elo Jhelo, heat the oil in the pan on medium flame and once oil is ready, start putting Elo Jhelo one at a time into the hot oil.
  • When they start floating on the oil, just flip them to cook evenly. Fry until all the Elo Jhelo turns golden brown.
  • Take out the ones which is ready and likewise fry rest of the Elo Jhelo.

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  • Add ½ cup sugar with 1 ½ cup of water in another pan to make sugar syrup. Cook it until all the sugar dissolves into the water and become little thick (approx. 4-5 minutes).
  • When the syrup is ready, turn off the flame, add cardamom powder into it and allow it to cool down for few minutes.
  • Dip the fried Elo Jhelo 2-3 at a time into the sugar syrup for few seconds and transfer to another plate.

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  • Elo Jhelo is ready, allow it to become cold. You can store them into air tight jar.